On @antonsavage.bsky.social NewsTalk Radio this morning: We warned Helen McEntee (then Minister for Justice) five years ago about Data Protection Commission's refusal to stop the flow of data about Irish people to data brokers - as now exposed by RTE Prime Time. www.iccl.ie/news/iccl-wa...

New paper from OpenAI reportedly acknowledges that incorrect assertions are inevitable even with perfect data (I say reportedly because I have not read the paper yet) arxiv.org/pdf/2509.04664

Cantillon in the mornings Irish Times

The Govt is on the wrong track here. www.rte.ie/news/2025/09...

The DPC learning about data brokers in 2025

This is the playbook, folks. If you're not paying attention now and doing something about it, then you're going to have to sit down the rest of your life because democracy is being taken away. Do not be quiet in this moment.

Important question in the Dail today after the RTE Prime Time expose on the sale of data about people's locations @ivanabacik.bsky.social asks @simonharrisireland.bsky.social After 8 years of inaction on Real-Time Bidding, how can you continue to have confidence in the Data Protection Commission?

The Data Protection Commission has cost the Irish taxpayer €162.3 million since it was first informed of the RTB data breach in 2017. See table --> www.iccl.ie/wp-content/u...

This is a shocking breech, individual phone tracking movements for sale without knowledge. The Irish DPC has serious questions to answer around ongoing inaction

Competition enforcement protects democracy. Europe's enforcers forgot this. They thought it was "just a side dish" (@cristinacaffarra.bsky.social will remember which top EU enforcer made that daft remark) The same goes for data protection enforcement. We need our enforcers to enforce.

Every 4 years Ireland's data protection "regulator" writes to the Irish Council for Civil Liberties to say their investigation into shady Real Time Bidding ad networks' surveillance of <everyone> is at a "mature" stage and its release is imminent And surveillance + sale of data to ANYONE goes on

"Should a significant national security incident now occur as a result of RTB data we will be obliged to make this correspondence public and clarify where responsibility lies." That day has arrived.

We cooperated with RTE PrimeTime over the last year on this very significant story about RTB data exposing the movements of Irish people, including military and political personnel. Link to this morning's preview piece is here --> www.rte.ie/news/primeti...

I'll speak at the European Parliament on 24 Sept on how finally enforcing the GDPR on the US and Chinese tech giants is critical to protect people, European security, and innovation. It is strategically essential that the Commission ensure Ireland acts. futureofwork.fes.de/news-list/e/...

25 years in online news and never once have I gotten any sense that mainstream reporters understand that they don't have to credibly repeat the claims of companies without nuance, context, or correction

For the first time ever, more than 5,000 children have been recorded living in emergency homeless accommodation (Dept of Housing, July 2025) Another new record of 16,058 people in homeless accommodation was also recorded.

Von der Leyen must act or be humiliated. My piece in @euractiv.com This is not a negotiation. It is a test. Europe possesses a “trade bazooka” designed for the precise scenario of Trump's threats. To delay its use is to invite further encroachments. www.euractiv.com/section/tech...

If true, this update is astonishing. The Commission climbed down from a planned break up of Google’s ad business to a mere fine, and then dropped even the fine for fear of offending Trump. This is for market violations that have been proven in U.S. court.

The reporting about the European Commission decision on Google adtech sounds shameful. The Commission had previously made it known that it was going to break Google up. We do not know yet if it is accurate, however. www.reuters.com/legal/litiga...

Stand up to Trump on Big Tech, says EU antitrust chief ↘️ on.ft.com/3Vq9NBu

Trump terminates the EU trade deal and threatens European sovreignty. Meanwhile in Europe: The Executive Vice-President for Technological Sovreignty pats her dog.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill: “You are given the choice between dishonour and trade war. Chose dishonour, and you will have a trade war anyway.”

The EU must use the anti coercion instrument now, or be humiliated. Europe must be free to enforce its own law on its own soil.

Big statement by Draghi www.meetingrimini.org/en/turn-skep...

“It’s lonely out there." - Simon Harris on the frosty response he and others get at EU level when suggesting a halt to support for genocide by Israel. That is appalling isn’t it?

Earlier this summer I spoke at the Irish Bar Council. We were discussing a ban on young people accessing social media. But calling for a ban shows there is no confidence in the existing enforcement regime. Why not just enforce the laws we already have? www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

its a very good piece. It touches on a secondary point that the legislation is technically illiterate (effectively they want legislate for working chocolate teapots). And stands counter to enterprise, innovation and R&D policy at national level

My colleague Olga Cronin in The Irish Times this morning urges Irish Justice Minister Jim O'Callaghan to reconsider encryption “back door” www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...

BF6 open beta started this morning. After 10 minutes of conquest, it’s an amazing looking, bewildering bullet storm.

The short term fate of democracy may be in the hands of one Cork man: Michael McGrath. My piece in the Cork Echo newspaper this morning. www.echolive.ie/corkviews/ar...

Yes, that’s the same Tony Blair Institute who’s been working with Trump on the Gaza Riviera. It is incomprehensible that anything this organisation is doing gets a free pass in the UK press let alone front page treatment www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Our new investigation: Ireland's own goal Almost every department of the Irish Government and local authorities have installed Chinese surveillance systems. It is hard to travel in Ireland without being tracked by China’s Hikvision surveillance system. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

None of the nine bodies in #Ireland which will receive additional powers through the #EU #AIAct to protect fundamental rights have received additional resources from the Irish government. Without #AI knowledge (technical and legal), they can't use these powers. www.iccl.ie/news/ireland...

We wrote to the European Commission this week to urge rapid DMA enforcement against Amazon’s new data free-for-all notice. As we warned, the DMA is being used by dominant firms to undermine GDPR protections that should be a shield for internet users and an aid to small business.

We have sent a formal complaint to the European Commission about Ireland's failure to fully transpose the EU Collective Redress Directive. Irish law prohibits bodies from raising the necessary commercial funds to bring litigation under the Directive.

Every loophole created will be exploited to the fullest extent possible in a system built on exploitation for profit. It's infuriating when experts warn "Hey, this bad thing will happen if you don't do XYZ," but lawmakers whistle in the dark & ignore the warnings as the technofascists close ranks.

The DMA has a provision that allows end-users to consent individually to anticompetitive behaviour, using a GDPR-style popup. It's nonsense. When we brought the problem to @aschwab.bsky.social he said it would be fine because it would be stringently enforced. Where's that enforcement?

This single "OK" to Amazon's data free-for-all is precisely what we warned the European Commission, Parliament, and Council about when the DMA was being negotiated... www.iccl.ie/news/privacy...

Join @carolecadwalla.bsky.social, @carissaveliz.bsky.social and me TODAY at 9am PT / noon ET / 5pm BT for a podcast on Substack entitled “Privacy Is Power”. Link is below.

In less than a month Irish authorities be ready to enforce the AI Act. Several were told they will have some role, but they don't know which authority is in charge of what. Nor is it clear whether they have new resources for these new functions. @krisshrishak.bsky.social www.iccl.ie/news/ireland...

It was good to meet Michael McGrath @michaelmcgratheu.bsky.social, European Commissioner for Justice. We look forward to further discussion on - GDPR enforcement; - Pay or OK / forced consent online; - Digital Fairness Act; - Procedural harmonisation; and - the Omnibus.

Yesterday the High Court in Dublin accepted our request to move our class action against Microsoft to the fast-track Commercial Court This means the case will be decided within the next 12 months www.irishtimes.com/business/202...

Btw. in 2020, @johnnyryan.bsky.social and I sent a submission on Adsquare's claimed data exploitation from the RTB bid stream in digital advertising to the Irish GDPR regulator. Nothing happened... www.iccl.ie/wp-content/u...

Polarised timelines. Election manipulation. Wasn't the EU meant to have the strongest tech regulation in the world? @johnnyryan.bsky.social says we need to go nuclear: switch off the algorithms. 🎧 www.europeanspodcast.com/all-episodes...

Does Apple “Liquid glass” design look like Windows Vista?

Survey for Irish people: what factors would motivate you to join a class action? A researcher at UCD is conducting research. Email her or complete survey at docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

I'm thinking about starting a community for supporters to chat about the issues Enforce works on. And maybe what it should work on, and how, too. What's the best place for this? - Slack? - Discord? - Other option?

A little bit of history today. The High Court granted permission for us to take Ireland’s first ever class action. This isn’t just about our class action against Microsoft. It opens a way to finally enforce the GDPR against all big tech that uses Ireland as a shelter. www.iccl.ie/digital-data...

www.iccl.ie/digital-data... Today we apply in court to take a class action against the massive data breach at the heart of Microsoft’s advertising system (Real Time Bidding “RTB”)

www.iccl.ie/digital-data... Today we apply in court to take a class action against the massive data breach at the heart of Microsoft’s advertising system (Real Time Bidding “RTB”)